I saw a ad on Craigslist for a LAPD police car.

Justin Aguirre

Justin Aguirre

Well-known member
While looking though Craigslist I ran across this ad:

I have a full LAPD uniform and fully marked LAPD car available for movie rentals. 1996 LAPD Chevorlet Caprice $250 every four hours. Me in full uniform $100 evey four hours. I can also get you older LAPD fully marked vehicles for rent. See pics below. You can rent seperate if needed. Also have a dummy in full LAPD uniform available see pictures below.Contact Mark at...

**phone number in link as well as photos**


http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/pho/509274188.html

This ad strikes me as odd for two reasons.

First, it's on Craiglist nuff said.

Second, I haven't looked into it but isn't there some kind of law where you need a special permit to have a fully marked modern police car. Like you would have to put it on a flatbed to take it anywhere because you can't drive it on city streets.

Plus, why would you need to rent the actor with the uniform? You could most likely find a custome house that has one for cheaper.

Maybe, I am wrong here but I would love to hear your guys opinion on this.
 
If you're shooting on a closed set, you might get away with it, but you can't have a person dressed in a police uniform, actor or not, out in public without police supervision and permission. Otherwise the person will instantly be charged with impersonating a police officer. Same with the car--it's illegal to have on the street.
If you go to a costume house, they will also tell you that you cannot rent authentic police uniforms, for obvious reasons. There are rental places that supply them, but you have to go through all the legal channels so that they can make sure the use is legitimate, supervised and permitted.
It's just common sense stuff. The guy who is renting this car clearly hasn't thought it through, but he will find out soon enough...
 
Just start waving guns around on your set, you'll soon have plenty of uniformed officers and their vehicles to stage a great shot :grin:
 
Sometimes you'll see police cars or other emergency equipment with magnets over the logos and covers on the lights. I've seen them driving with "picture car" magnets as well.

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I read somewhere that for actors just starting out in New York, a police unifrom is a great investment, because it gets you some extra work and background gigs...stuff like that.

Form what I remember, you have to register the uniform or something...you have to let authorities know you have a NYPD outfit, so they have it on file should they need to investigate anything involving people posing as police or fraud.

Vehicles are a whole other thing. I was talking to a retired fireman on set once, and he said all picture firetruck vehicles had to be the old yellow ones because the current ones are red....if I recall correctly.

They had to be different enough so that most people would notice and know it is not the authentic thing.

That didn't stop a real cop from driving on set with a pregnant woman and refusing to leave because he thought the emergency entrance they had built for the hospital in John Q was real...
 
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